Saturday, February 03, 2018

#AuthorLifeMonth Day 3: Last 5-Star Read

Technically my last 5-star read was Misery by Stephen King. It was actually even better than I expected it to be; with the exception of one uncomfortable description towards the end of the book, I thought it was not just a great yarn but also very well-written. But I've already talked about one of the things I enjoyed about Misery, so I'm going to take this time to give some shout-outs to some other recent 5-star books I've read.

The first is The Silence of the Lambs by Thomas Harris. I've been studying story structure recently, and one of the methods I've been studying is Shawn Coyne's Story Grid. Coyne gushes about how good The Silence of the Lambs is, so I finally got around to checking it out. I can certainly understand why it's help up as one of the finest thrillers of all time; it delivered on all fronts. I enjoyed it even more than the film (the same can be said for Misery--and neither is a small claim, they are both very good films.

The second is Mother's Milk by Rachel Hunt Steenblick. This was a more unconventional read for me--it is a book of poetry inspired by the author's ongoing relationship with deity, particularly a female, motherly deity. It was beautiful, and absolutely a five-star read.

The third book I'll recommend is Long Dark Night by Janci Patterson. This book has one of the best, most harrowing takes on vampirism I've ever seen packed into a fast-paced thriller. If you want the anti-Twilight (in every good sense of the phrase), check this one out for sure.